Abril Preciado
Abril Preciado is a bilingual television journalist at FOX6 News Milwaukee who covers education with a focus on how school crises and policy decisions affect students, families and staff. Her reporting stands out for sustained coverage of single school communities over months, following stories from emergency response through investigations, relocation plans and the first day back in class. She pairs that beat work with records-driven accountability stories that scrutinize local officials and the impact of their conduct on the public.
School fire, relocation and recovery
Preciado devotes extensive attention to the Lincoln Avenue School community after a five-alarm fire gutted its 109-year-old building on June 30. Her coverage follows the incident from the initial blaze, where more than 100 firefighters responded and the roof and floors collapsed, through the realization that the building is a total loss. She reports on the immediate displacement of hundreds of elementary students and staff and the district’s need to keep the school community together despite losing its building. Across multiple pieces she documents the district’s interim solutions, including the relocation of the Community Learning Center program and summer activities to another campus and the planning for a new home for the school year.
As the situation evolves, she covers community meetings convened by Milwaukee Public Schools to answer questions from families and staff about what comes next. Her reporting details how district leaders outline plans for Lincoln Avenue students to move into dedicated space inside Pulaski High School, emphasizing capacity and proximity as the reasons for the choice.
She returns to the story at the start of the 2026–27 school year, describing how officials and elected leaders welcome Lincoln Avenue students to their new location and how classrooms, cafeteria and offices are carved out to preserve the school’s identity under a different roof. The work shows a preference for following a single school community through shock, transition and a new routine, with attention to logistics and the human impact on students and staff.
Milwaukee Public Schools decisions and safety
Preciado closely tracks how Milwaukee Public Schools and city leaders respond to the Lincoln Avenue fire with policy and safety changes. Her coverage of an August briefing with the mayor, fire chief and superintendent explains the investigation’s finding that chemical-soaked cleaning rags discarded in a second-floor plastic garbage can triggered spontaneous combustion and caused the blaze. She reports the fire chief’s conclusion that there is no evidence of arson and that no one acted with intent, while noting the absence of sprinklers in the building and the scale of the response.
In the same reporting she highlights procedural changes, including new training and updated rules for storing and disposing of rags containing oils or other chemicals in approved metal containers at the end of every shift.
Her pieces also cover demolition planning, air-quality testing around the site, and financial recovery steps tied to insurance and rebuilding.
She explains how district officials manage the temporary relocation of K3–5th grade students to Pulaski High School, including assurances that programming, student supports and transportation will continue. Throughout, she foregrounds statements from school and city leaders while making clear how their decisions affect everyday life for teachers, families and children.
Accountability and public records
Beyond school operations, Preciado uses public records to examine the behavior of local officials. In coverage of anti-Muslim posts linked to the New Berlin mayor, she reports from the newsroom on what open records reveal about the situation. The work underscores a willingness to move beyond press releases, using documents to establish timelines and patterns and to test official claims.
This accountability strand complements her education beat, connecting school communities to the broader climate of local governance and public trust.
Bilingual, community-focused reporting
Preciado’s author biography describes her as an Emmy award-winning bilingual journalist, a background that shapes how she approaches coverage of diverse communities. Before joining FOX6 News Milwaukee, she reported in California, covering a 24-day farm workers march, California wildfires, politics and the Latino community, as well as contributing border reporting for a national radio network.
That experience informs her current work, where she consistently centers families, emphasizes clear explanations of complex decisions and brings attention to communities affected by school crises and policy shifts.
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